Houston struggles to save the Astrodome, London vows to make biking safer, L.A. sees light rail successes, and San Francisco mounts a shitty campaign for its sewers. It's Christmastime in the city for this week's urban reads. »12/25/13 2:30pm 12/25/13 2:30pm

We all know that social media is the criminal'sworst enemy. But this summer, a group of researchers are collaborating with police to test software that can reliably predict whether a person is part of a gang based on their social networks, building on similar software used to track insurgents in Afghanistan. »7/07/13 5:19pm 7/07/13 5:19pm

So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn't possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn't worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case. »8/25/11 8:00pm 8/25/11 8:00pm

London may have the most Twitter accounts in the world, but New York City residents tweet more than anyone else in the world. This little factoid from Sysomos was recently dredged up in a NY Times op-ed piece. »6/13/11 9:51pm 6/13/11 9:51pm

France really does have the best thieves. This time, a group of bandits known as the "vacuum gang" has on a 15-store robbing spree using nothing but a drill and a powerful vacuum cleaner. It's Mission Impossible meets Martha Stewart. »9/24/10 12:40pm 9/24/10 12:40pm

Could those two things be related somehow? Indeed, the turf war between gangs in New York has spilled over into twitter, where they often use the service to trash talk rival gangs and plan attacks. »11/30/09 6:00pm 11/30/09 6:00pm